1. Bright Street Cooperative
2017 NCDA Audrey Nelson Award
NCDA Winter Legislative Conference
Washington, DC
February 17, 2017

2. About Burlington Vermont
Population – 42,417
FY16 CDBG - $724,881
FY16 HOME - $383,939
Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area
51% of all low-and moderate income renter households are cost-burdened
69% of extremely low-income renters are cost-burdened
47 % of housing stock built before 1950
82% of rental units built before 1980

3. Neighborhood Revitalization – Burlington’s Old North End
Old North End – 27% minority population and the poverty rate for these census tracts is 30%
Neighborhood of renters – only 32% own their homes
Earlier redevelopment included new social service agency buildings, 4 small apartment buildings, a pocket park
Bright (Blight) Street left behind; owned by one family not wanting to sell
Finally, Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) assembled a 1.4 acre site for redevelopment – contained squalid housing and a brownfield
Property assessment documented lead, arsenic, other heavy metals polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH).
Neighborhood Revitalization – Burlington’s Old North End

4. Key Partners
Neighborhood Planning Assemblies
Champlain Housing Trust – largest land trust in the world, manages over 2,000 affordable and market rate apartments in 4 counties
Housing Vermont – nonprofit development company with over affordable units in 171 developments in Vermont
Local Housing Cooperatives
Association of Africans Living in Vermont
Vermont Community Garden Network
Local, state and federal government

5. Best Practices Civic engagement with local neighbors
Resident-controlled housing cooperative
Size of units responsive to community needs
Local and state partners
Community space and community gardens
Remediate brownfields
Mixed income
Historic streetscape preserved

6. Affordable Housing – Big Results
40 units/34 permanently affordable – 50/60% of AMI
Mixed income/ethnically diverse
Cooperative housing – shared control and responsibility
Healthy community living – community gardens, space, brownfield remediation

7. Budget/Leverage CDBG $156,172 (Ent. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
HOME $400,000 (Ent. 14, 15)
Neighborworks $336,000
Burlington HTF $125,000
Tax Credit Equity $7,368,750
VHCB – general fund $1,000,000
TD Bank $100,000
Brownfields RLF $235,590
Permanent Debt $1,364,410
Support from the Mayor, City Council, Federal delegation and citizens
Senator Leahy, Secretary Castro and Mayor Weinberger at the ribbon cutting with residents and funders.

8. For more information
Noelle MacKay, Director Marcy Esbjerg, Assistant Director Community & Economic Development Office Burlington, VT Burlingtonvt.gov/cedo